Related Louisiana Law Affecting Practice: Public Health, Insurance, and Business Regulation
Related Louisiana Law Affecting Practice: Public Health, Insurance, and Business Regulation
Public health overlay
Chiropractic practice sits inside Louisiana's public health framework: the Sanitary Code governs reportable disease, and practice during declared emergencies may be shaped by Board and Department of Health orders. Licensure is separate from radiation registration - if the office takes X-rays, equipment and operators are subject to state radiation control requirements.
Insurance
- Louisiana's freedom-of-choice and insurance-equality provisions limit an insurer's ability to refuse reimbursement to a licensed chiropractor for covered services within scope, and protect the patient's choice of provider.
- Automobile medical payments/PIP coverage pays reasonable medical expenses arising from a crash, subject to policy limits and any applicable fee schedule; document causation and medical necessity.
- Workers' compensation claims run through the Louisiana Workforce Commission, with rules on choice of physician, authorization, and utilization review; treatment beyond statutory limits requires authorization.
- Medicare and Medicaid chiropractic coverage is generally limited to manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation, with supporting documentation.
Business regulation
Chiropractors may organize as professional corporations or professional LLCs under Louisiana law, but ownership is restricted to licensed professionals; the corporate practice doctrine bars an unlicensed investor from controlling clinical decisions. Fee splitting and kickbacks are prohibited, and compensation must not be tied to referrals.
Worked example
An imaging center offers the clinic $25 per scan referred. Reasoning: a per-referral payment is an unlawful kickback and fee split with an unlicensed entity, a disciplinary ground, and potentially insurance fraud - even if every scan is medically necessary. Flat fair-market rent for space is different.
Traps that cost marks
- Billing PIP without documenting the crash's causal link.
- Assuming insurance payment rules and licensure scope answer the same question.
- Overlooking radiation registration for in-office X-ray equipment.